February 2003

The website for writers

News Review

Is the UK book trade 'in serious danger of commercial suicide' from supermarket bookselling?
40% of Americans read for pleasure - and what they read is John Grisham
What makes a bestseller?
Flamingo grounded - 'how can the authors be happy when they have lost their publishing imprint and, worse still, been deprived of their editor?'

Comment

'Good books sell and make money' Morgan Entrekin of Grove-Atlantic
'Very occasionally I become aware of a pomposity and a preciousness associated with poetry...' Simon Armitage
Chris Manby on people reading chick-lit 'to feel a bit better about life'
'Book publishing is a surprisingly dynamic enterprise because you have to reinvent your product year after year…' John Makinson, Penguin CEO

Writer's Quotes

‘The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman.' Roald Dahl

‘Writing is more than anything a compulsion...' Julie Burchill

‘It is the style of all the writers whose tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean to and more than they feel.' Cyril Connolly

‘Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.' Iris Murdoch

Poster Collection

Writers on writing

'I published the novel myself...It was the best thing I could have done: I regained control, and I have to say that it has been my best publishing experience so far.' Deborah Lawrenson in our new feature

Reviews

Mortification: Writers’ stories of their public shame
'The trials of being a writer never seem to end.'

John Jenkins column

Bob's Journal goes into its 4th volume

You can catch up or
Read the latest
Measured by word-count, Bob feels he shapes up well against Harold Pinter...
'Most of us don’t need the education of an ex-lord chief justice of Northern Ireland to deduce that ‘to sex up’ therefore means ‘to make more sexy’, i.e. "to make more exciting or appealing"'.
'I, for one, am glad people want to lose themselves in other worlds. If they didn’t, I'd be out of a job...'

Inside Publishing

Our latest article looks at Print on Demand and how it is changing publishing